If the past two years in Trump’s America have taught us anything, it’s that the corporate elite and political ruling class won't save working people and people of color from violent white supremacists. In fact, they often collude with them to pass tax cuts for the rich and slash public spending on schools and healthcare.

Nowhere was this clearer than Chicago and Illinois, where both Governor Bruce Rauner and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel repeatedly chose to enrich the wealthy few on the backs of poor and working class people of color. During their tenure, thousands of young Black and brown people were shot and killed. Domestic violence shelters, health clinics, and home child care providers were forced to turn away the women who came to them in need. Predominantly Black schools and colleges were closed, upending the lives of students and teachers alike.

The elections of 2018 and 2019 were and will be a critical opportunity to fight back. But on their own, they're also insufficient.

That’s why United Working Families is building a new generation of Black and Latinx candidates, campaigners, and organizers who are winning governing power for the movement. We focus on what lasts after the consultants leave town: The organizing conversations that win large numbers of people to the idea that political change is possible and collective action is necessary. The training and development programs that reduce our reliance on paid operatives. The bold, populist, bright line demands that direct working class anger up, not down—things like universal child care, a jobs guarantee, and housing as a human right.

We congratulate the UWF members and endorsed candidates who won their elections on Tuesday. To name just a few: Brandon Johnson, the Black teacher and union organizer who will now govern the second-largest county in the US; Delia Ramirez, the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants who will continue fighting gentrification from the statehouse; Aaron Ammons, the formerly incarcerated community activist who will work to expand the franchise as Champaign County Clerk.

Our victories were seeded by the work we did together in the 2015 city elections and powered by the independent political organizations that grew out of those efforts. Our impact will be measured by our ability to govern for the many and not the few. Beginning next month, our UWF Elected Official Chapter—made up of endorsed and elected UWF members—meets to build and strategize together across the three legislative bodies they represent.